Training programs may be developed and applied to build skills in trainees. The success of these training programs in terms of skill building may depend in part on the fidelity of the training programs and the effectiveness with which the training programs are applied. For example, a cause and effect relationship may exist between a training program's effectiveness and its fidelity. Understating this relationship may be important, particularly when high-fidelity training programs are costly, in terms of time and money, to develop and apply than low-fidelity training programs.
A training program may include a training scenario that is applied to a trainee through a training exercise. The training program may include real-time feedback mechanisms and/or post-exercise feedback mechanisms.
Some training programs are designed for, and implemented on, one or more computing platforms. The computing platforms may be connected through a computing network. Some of these computer-based training programs are designed for individual trainees; other computer-based training programs are designed for multiple trainees. In some training programs designed for multiple trainees, one or more trainees may be pitted against each other. In some computer-based training programs, a trainee may interact only with a computer program. Some training programs may be designed to execute on specialized hardware devices. A flight simulator is an example of such specialized hardware. Flight simulators, and their embedded training programs, may be designed to maintain or improve pilot proficiency, and may be particularly useful for training pilots in certain emergency scenarios without exposing pilots and their aircraft to risk.
Other training programs, which may be ad hoc, specifically are targeted at a large group of trainees with vastly differing skill levels and job descriptions. An iconic example is the large-scale maneuvers executed by elements of the U.S. Army in Texas and Louisiana in the run-up to U.S. entry into World War II.
Many training programs include mechanisms or provisions for evaluating training program effectiveness as measured through training exercises undertaken by individual trainees (i.e. evaluating individual trainee performance), and as measured through training exercises undertaken by trainee groups (i.e., evaluating performance of the group as well as individual trainees or subsets of the trainee group). One such mechanism may be a test administered to the trainee(s) at the conclusion of a training exercise (i.e., immediately thereafter or at a later time).
Some training programs include mechanisms that evaluate the effectiveness of the training program itself. One such mechanism may be a critique completed by individual trainees.
Another aspect of training programs is efficiency. Training program efficiency may be measured in terms of an increase in proficiency of the trainee and in terms of the cost to develop and execute the training program.
Current training programs do not include mechanisms that allow systematic training program evaluation considering the interaction of training effectiveness, fidelity, and efficiency.